MY WEEK : 24 ( W/E 17TH JUNE )

Welcome to this week's update from my allotments. It has been a very unsettled week weather wise with plenty of rain for all of us, some might say a bit too much in places, the crops though here in my area of the country needed it and have really come on as a result. The forecast for the week ahead is not much better with plenty more rain expected I'm afraid, it's either too dry, wet, hot or cold for us gardeners but that is all part of our challenge.








The soft fruit such as my Raspberries pictured above have really enjoyed the warm and wet conditions as you can see from the shear quantity of them, also covering them with the netting as I did last week before they ripened has definitely stopped the birds from feasting on them, the variety by the way is a Malling Jewel and has an excellent flavour. My Strawberries are also cropping very well to the extent that we cannot eat them quick enough so the remaining ones have been frozen so that later on when I have more time available I can make some of Daniel's favourite jam.







You may recall that earlier in the Spring I had planted about 30 Asparagus crowns which were 1yr old plants into trenches enriched with compost and Growmore fertiliser, as they have grown I have back filled the trenches until as you can see in the top-left picture the soil has become level, I now have to leave the ferns to grow which will feed the crowns and also keep them weed free so that they are not deprived of any valuable moisture or nutrients, this hopefully will result in stronger growth next year. My Broad Beans shown in the top-right picture have really advanced and are now at the stage where I need to remove the growing tips which the Blackfly will soon be attracted to, this will also encourage the plants energy to go into the pod production rather than any more vertical growth, the young growing tips by the way can be cooked and eaten in the same way as for Spring Greens.






The climbing French Beans ( Blue Lake ) pictured top-left which I transplanted last week have already started growing away, the conditions for them must have been ideal it will be interesting to see how the yield from them and the Dwarf French Beans that I have also planted compare. The Sweet Peas are producing a couple of lovely bunches every other day now and definitely are the star of the show at home with their beautiful scent the first thing you notice when you go into the house.






When I planted my Potato Tubers about a month later than some of my fellow plot holders I obviously thought that I would not get any until a month after them but to my amazement I had a little dig around one of the tubers out of curiosity to see how they were doing and as you can see from the top-right picture a good crop had already developed, they were soon devoured with a knob of butter melted over them, so moist and tasty.






The Sweetcorn plants have all transplanted well and showing signs of growing away, the crops in the Brassica cage are doing well with the Peas almost reaching the top of their support netting as you can see in the top-right picture it will be interesting to see whether or not they suffer any damage from the Pea Moth, I'm hoping that the netting on my tunnel will keep this pest away.






In the Brassica cage the Summer Cabbages pictured top-right are starting to hearten up and they should soon be ready for harvesting, also the Romanesco plants are doing well and as you can see from the picture top-right have started to form their heads, this is a member of the Cauliflower family and is something that I have never grown or tasted before so I am looking forward to trying them.






The Dhalias are now shooting well and despite the efforts of a few slugs and snails have also started to produce the first of their flower buds as you can see in the top-right picture. The Spray Chrysanthemum cuttings at home are doing well and are now at the stage where they need stopping which is basically removing the lead shoot so that they will produce several stems of flowers, I will show you this in next weeks update.


Well that is it for another week at my allotments, as I'm sure you are all aware it is a busy time now on our plots with harvesting starting, plant care and weeding but as you will soon find out it is a hugely rewarding time when the fruits of all your labours start to pay off, I hope you are enjoying this too regards Steve.